Izšlo v letu 2016 / Published in 2016

Tina Potočnik, RI19+: Female Students of Jože Plečnik Between Tradition and Modernism

Uredili / Edited by Mary Pepchinski, Mariann Simon

Routledge

After World War II, in the changed socio-political circumstances of the newly established socialist state of Yugoslavia, in contrast to the pre-war period, almost exclusively female students studied under the leading Slovene neo-classicist architect Jože Plečnik (1872–1957), who at that time still taught at the Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture. In her essay Tina Potočnik focuses on those women architects who were professionally active when the crucial period in Slovene twentieth-century architecture began and reached its peak in the 1960s. Their professional position and the role of their work in the formation of the new socialist country and the new society is discussed, with special regard to the following questions: How did Plečnik’s female students navigate between his architectural views (influenced/inspired by tradition), foreign influences and the needs and directions of a socialist state, such as solving the housing problem and building public facilities? Why did they, in the time of the socialist regime, study and work under Plečnik, known for his interlacing of architecture and religion? Were they because of their gender seen as less likely to succeed professionally and thus directed to him, since Plečnik’s work was not really appreciated at that time, or were they just not enticed by ideological conformity as some of their male colleagues were? Where did they find work after concluding their studies and on what kind of commissions? Furthermore, this essay sheds light on professional as well as personal relationship between Plečnik and his female students. On the basis of archival research and interviews with Plečnik’s female students who are still alive the paper deepens our understanding of the position of women architects in socialist Europe.

O knjigi / About the book:

»Ideological Equals: Women Architects in Socialist Europe 1945-1989 presents an alternative narrative of women in architecture. A topic often considered from the perspective of difference, this edited collection conversely focuses on the woman architect in a position of equality with their male counterparts. The book looks at nations in Eastern Europe under Socialism where, between 1945 and 1989, a contrasting vision of gender relations was propagated in response to the need for engineers and architects. It includes contributions from established and emerging academics in the fields of 20th century history, art history, and architectural history in Central and Eastern Europe exploring the political, economic and social mechanisms which either encouraged or limited the rise of the woman architect. Investigating the inherent contradictions of Socialist gender ideology and practice, this illustrated volume examines the individuals in different contexts; the building types the women produced; the books and theory they were able to write; their contacts to international organizations; and their representation on both sides of the Iron Curtain.«

Izšlo v letu 2016 / Published in 2016

V / In: Simón Bolívar: Travels and Transformations of a Cultural Icon

Uredili / Edited by Maureen G. Shanahan and Ana María Reyes

University Press of Florida

In her essay Tina Potočnik connects the Centro Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, and the Revolution Square complex in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She demonstrates that the Centro Simón Bolívar served as a model for the Revolution Square complex, meant to house the new government, administrative, and cultural center of one of the former Yugoslav Republics. The Revolution Square complex was intended as a built symbol of the new political and social order, reflecting ideas of revolution and freedom. The essay elaborates on the historical circumstances surrounding the design, the formal resemblance of both complexes, and the parallels between the reception of the liberator – Bolívar, in Latin America, and Tito in Yugoslavia. Potočnik argues that at the time when the Cold War brought about new concerns over imperialism worldwide, Latin America, Venezuela, and Bolívar in particular, offered a strong symbol of revolution and liberation.

O knjigi / About the book:

»In this volume, an array of international and interdisciplinary scholars shows the ways Bolívar has appeared over the last two centuries in painting, fiction, poetry, music, film, festival, dance, city planning, and even reliquary adoration. They illustrate how Bolívar’s body has been exalted, reimagined, or fragmented in different contexts, taking on a range of meanings to represent the politics and poetics of today’s national bodies. By critically analyzing many examples of cultural Bolivarianisms, or cults of Bolívar, this collection demonstrates the capacity of the arts and humanities to challenge and reinvent hegemonic icons and narratives and, therefore, to be vital to democracy.«

International conference “The Aspect of Woman”

26th and 27th May 2016

RI19+, Research Institute for Visual Culture from the 19th Century to the Present Time

Ljubljana, Slovenia

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” and there were those, who became a woman long before the famous quote of Simone de Beauvoir was said out loud in 1949 and who left their footprint, seen or hidden, praised or still unrecognized. Last couple of decades have seen a radical transformation in the ways of recreation, assimilation, dispersion and reception of woman, with scholars and societies trying to rediscover her role in the visual culture through times. Critical rethinking of the complementary roles and appearances of woman – female, who refused to remain solely the other sex and appeared in the context of visual culture throughout the past century as critical and provocative subject, challenging possibilities and limitations in the world of the first sex, is the main theme of the two day conference on “The Aspect of Woman”, organised by RI19+.

Conference is an integral part of an ongoing project “Artistic Creativity of Women from the 19th Century to the Present Time” and is the first in line of the periodically scheduled events in the course of the following years, all interweaved around woman in visual culture throughout the past and present times and intense aims to evaluate and analyse their contributions in wider European space.

For the conference, hosted by Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana (Zavod Bunker), the organizer RI19+ welcomes proposals that might include, yet are not limited solely to the following topics:

– current status of studies, questions and themes discussing women in visual culture;

The chapter “Female Purview” in the philosophical essay Akma, written by architect and urbanist Max Fabiani, reflects his experience, gained while teaching at the Vienna Art School for Women and Girls (Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen). Although it was possible for women to acquire formal education in painting, printmaking and sculpture, the studies in architecture were still outside their reach. Moreover, the architectural knowledge they acquired in the frame of Fabiani’s lectures on the history of style, was redirected to the medium of the so called “applied” or “decorative” arts (furniture, jewelry, textiles, toys etc.) which were deemed to be “natural” for women or within their abilities.
This paper discusses on one side the relation between the perception of “female purview” and general domestication of women within the creative medium (even after the Second World War), and on the other the ornament, which until then characterized various historical styles and the Viennese Secession, yet soon became the subject of critique of modernistic architectural theorists and was in some cases pejoratively added to the female purview.

Tina Potočnik, PhD

20. 6. 2014, Turin, Italy

European Architectural History Network. Third International Meeting

19. – 21. 6. 2014, Turin, Italy

After World War II, in the changed socio-political conditions of the newly established socialist state of Yugoslavia and in contrast to the pre-war period, more female than male students studied under the leading Slovene neo-classicist architect Jože Plečnik (1872–1957) at the Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture. The present paper focuses on those women architects who were professionally active when the crucial period in twentieth century Slovene architecture began and reached its peak in the 1960s. Their professional position and the role of their work in the formation of the new socialist country and the new society will be discussed, with special regard to the following questions: How did Plečnik’s female students negotiate his architectural views (influenced/inspired by tradition), foreign influences, and the needs and directions of a socialist state, such as solving the housing problem and building public facilities? Why did they, in the time of the socialist regime, study and work under Plečnik, known for his interlacing of architecture and religion? Because of their gender, were they seen as potentially having little professional potential and thus directed to him, since Plečnik’s work was not really appreciated at that time, or were they just not enticed by ideological conformity as some of their male colleagues were? Where did they find work after concluding their studies and what kind of commissions were they given? On the basis of archival research and interviews with Plečnik’s female students who are still alive the paper will deepen the understanding of the position of women architects in socialist Europe.

Dediščina in modernizem. Arhitektura Svetozarja Križaja z inkorporacijo historičnih struktur in tradicije vipavske ter ajdovske gradnje / Built Heritage and Modernism. Architecture of Svetozar Križaj Incorporating the Historical Built Structures and the Building Tradition of the Ajdovščina and Vipava Regions

Svetozar Križaj (1921-1996) was a student of Jožef Plečnik and one of the most important Slovene modernist architects in the post-World War II period. The survey of Križaj’s realised but also planned buildings in Ajdovščina and Vipava, reveals his creative architectural approach, where he on one hand related strongly to the historical built heritage and incorporated the latter in the newly built structures, while on the other hand he simultaneously remained faithful to the building tradition of the Ajdovščina and Vipava regions.

In 1960, Edvard Ravnikar (1907-1993), a former student of the architects Jože Plečnik and Le Corbusier, won the design competition for the urban arrangement of the Revolution Square complex in Ljubljana, one of the most important architectural complexes in Slovenia and in the former Yugoslavia. The winning design entry depicts a monumental architectural composition with twin towers overlooking a wide platform. The design and its inspiration within the architectural history and the connection between the formal properties of the Revolution Square complex and its symbolic meaning are two of the key issues of the research, which is being carried out by RI19+ in the frame of the study of the 19th and 20th Century architecture in Slovenia.

There are several factors that have greatly contributed to the poor condition of the architecture of Slovenian post-war modernism, among which without a doubt the valorisation, being itself the basis for the treatment of any kind of built heritage. The ignorance regarding characteristics of the 20th Century architecture and misunderstanding of the architectural concepts lead towards the failure in the recognition of the architectural qualities. The title of the famous Goya’s work The sleep of reason produces monsters (El sueño de la Razón produce monstruos), points out a belief that in the framework of valorisation on the basis of an expanded multidisciplinary aspect there is a potential to improve the state of Slovene modern architecture.

From 1957 the Youth Relay was given to the Yugoslav president each year until in 1987 this tradition was abolished. Within this period thirty-one relay batons, designed by leading Yugoslavian artists in a wide formal variety, were the focus of the Youth Day Celebrations, honoring Tito’s birthday and emphasizing brotherhood and unity. This paper examines symbolical dimensions of those artefacts, originally of non-artistic nature transmitted into the Yugoslav liturgy and art in a trans-national and trans-historical perspective. By widening the notion of the relay baton to the relay torch and through parallel surveying of the Youth Relays and the Olympic Torch Relay, introduced in 1936 at the Berlin Games, in relation to the re-design of a Nazi poster for the Youth Day Celebration in 1987 which depicts a relay baton in the form of the model for the Parliament building designed by Jože Plečnik, the paper also contemplates the possibility of perceiving the Youth Relays as a symbol of peace.

Tina Potočnik, PhD

17. 5. 2013, Sarajevo, Bosnia

Cultures of Economy in Southeastern Europe, 4th Workshop of the DAAD network „Media and Memory“

15. – 18. 5. 2013, Sarajevo, Bosnia

In 2012 the design competition for the new National and University Library (NUK II) in the center of Ljubljana, Slovenia, came to a close. Its aim was, as in the case of the competition in the 1980ies (the winning project was never executed), to provide an architectural solution for the building of crucial national and cultural importance. The focus was set on the relation between the formal aspect of architecture, specifics of the location and culture and, on the other hand, historical and economic circumstances that influenced both competition entries for the NUK II – the first one in the time of the transition processes towards the global capitalism and the latter in the time of increasing economic and financial crisis in the European Union.